Scott Pruett’s bid to become the lone, all-time Rolex 24 At Daytona race winner will have to wait until 2015.

Pruett will remain tied with Hurley Haywood atop the all-time list. Each man has five Rolex 24 victories.

Scott Pruett after a long weekend of racing. (Photo: Godwin Kelly)

Pruett, who was co-driving the No. 01 Ganassi Racing Ford Riley, wandered into the Daytona International Speedway media center with an hour left in the race to give what amounted to his concession speech.

“Sometimes you have those races where things don’t go well from the start and ours didn’t,” Pruett said. “We aren’t exactly sure what happened, but I’m sure it’s engine related. When you start picking up a vibration and it was getting worse and worse and detrimental to our speed.

“I can’t say enough about Ford, Ganassi and Roush Yates Racing. When we were here for the Roar (test in early January), we actually stopped early because we were having so many issues. To come back and run as strong as we did, I’m not going to say it was a surprise, but we were very excited to have this level of performance.”

This is only the first race of the new Tudor United SportsCar Championship. Pruett said he will put this race behind him and move on to the 12 Hours of Sebring, scheduled in the middle of March.

“Points are always important,” he said. “You got to get as many points as you can. Every point counts.”

Pruett spun the Prototype in the chicane area Saturday night, just one of the agonizes he suffered during this twice-around-the-clock run.

“When the driver is behind the wheel, he’s responsible and I’m responsible for that, but I couldn’t tell you what happened,” he said. “I punched it out of there and all of sudden the car went sideways and I hit the fence. You can’t imagine the weight that is on you from doing something like that.

“I may have had one crash ever in this race. I don’t know what happened. I can’t put it together. I feel bad for the team, for the guys and my teammates.”